Taylor Swift threw her broken heel to a fan. He used it to help his cousin beat cancer.
A Taylor Swift fan is spinning on his highest heels a year after catching part of the singer's shoe during her Eras Tour and using the media attention to help his cousin, who is battling cancer.
On Nov. 20, 2023, Swift proved her line from "Long Story Short" possible: "If the shoe fits, walk in it 'til your high heels break." Her right Louboutin boot heel busted during her "Lover" era. Before performing the title track, Swift stopped along the stage catwalk to grab the spike and pull it from the red sole. She tossed the glimmering memento into the Rio de Janeiro crowd and the hands of Felipe Conrado.
"It was such an unexpected moment − I didn’t understand what was happening when Taylor crouched down in front of me and seemed bothered by something," Conrado, 33, tells USA TODAY. "My instinct was: Raise your hand and catch it! It was like a perfect baseball throw because the shoe landed perfectly in my hands midair."
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Aside from the coveted "22" hat, which Swift gifts to one lucky fan every night, this is the only instance that a concertgoer has received a historic piece of the singer's Eras Tour garb.
"I'm still speechless to this day," Conrado says.
As the once-in-a-lifetime moment blew up on social media − one video posted to Instagram garnered more than 102 million views − an idea came to Conrado.
I spent a year covering the Eras Tour: Here's what it was like.
"I thought, how can I help my cousin?" he says of Ângela Conrado, who is fighting melanoma. "The family had been working to raise money for her treatment for weeks, and I thought this could shed some light on it."
Ângela's diagnosis happened two months before Swift brought her foot-tapping show to Brazil. In a news interview, Conrado said he would sell the heel to pay for chemo. Swifties were split on the decision: On social media, thousands rallied behind his generous heart. The other half advocated for him to #KeepTheHeel. And the story reached the shoe's designer, Christian Louboutin.
"(Louboutin) sent me a handwritten letter saying he would help with the treatment," Conrado says. "It was a beautiful and emotional ending to the story. My cousin was thrilled with the incredible support from the fans and is deeply grateful for Christian’s generosity."
After 12 chemo sessions spread over a year, Ângela has finished her treatment and is in remission. Conrado was able to keep the red-coated heel.
"I plan to create a display frame so I can look at it every day in a secure and protected way, alongside the rest of my Taylor Swift collection," he says.
For now, the shoe piece is hidden in a secret spot.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Swift's broken Eras Tour heel helped a woman fight cancer